Teens are using wildlife site near Bristol as 'drink and drugs den'

Neil Hutton, Portbury Wharf Community Officer for the Avon Wildlife Trust has had to put up notices warning against poachers at the nature reserve at Portishead.
Neil in one of the bird hides on the reserve.
Date: 06/05/2012
Photographer: Dave Betts/Staff.
Reporter: Heather Pickstock
Copyright: Northcliffe Media Ltd.

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But over the last several months the wooden structures, which have benches inside them, have become a magnet for anti-social behaviour with local teenagers reportedly using them to drink and take drugs until the early hours.

The young vandals have smashed out the hideouts and left them littered with nitrous oxide (NOS) canisters and empty bottles.

Neil Hutton, Portbury Wharf Community Officer for the Avon Wildlife Trust has had to put up notices warning against poachers at the nature reserve at Portishead. Neil in one of the bird hides on the reserve. Date: 06/05/2012 Photographer: Dave Betts/Staff. Reporter: Heather Pickstock Copyright: Northcliffe Media Ltd.

Local police have already stepped up patrols and are now appealing for people to come forward and help set up a ‘hidewatch’ to catch the culprits.

The cost of the damage is now running into thousands of pounds with repairs having to be made each week.

A spokesman for the Avon and Somerset Police volunteers said: “Many of the bird hides at Portbury Nature Reserve have been the subject of anti-social behaviour and damage, to the extent that if it doesn't stop the council may have to remove them altogether.

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“We are urging people who walk past the hides, especially on an evening, to keep an eye out for anyone in or around them who you suspect might just be there to use it as a social clubhouse rather than bird watching.

“Youths have been seen there drinking alcohol, taking NOS and vandalising the hides and this has got to be stopped.

“PCSOs have been patrolling the area but cannot be there 24/7.”

Portbury Wharf

The volunteer group is also asking people who spot teens heading towards the hides with alcohol, cigarettes or NOS cartridges to call police.

The spokesman added: “While we don't want to demonise our young people, predominantly the problems have come from teenagers.